Fan Speed Issue

[Dlee13]

I recently got a CM HAF 912 case and have 4 fans installed to my Gigabyte Z77-D3H motherboard using the SysFan ports and a Y splitter.

My temps are very cool yet fans sit at over 1000rpm non stop and are very loud. my current fan set up is:

1 x CM 200mm LED fan at the top
2 x Corsair AF120mm LED fan at the front
1 x CM 120mm stock case fan at rear.

I find no matter what I try I can't get two of my fans to go under 1000rpm and they sound like they're running at full speed non stop. In the bios I tried setting them to silent which made no change and have tried several different methods in SpeedFan with no luck.

My bios version is 1.1 and Rev 17. The most recent one is 22 so would flashing the bios help to fix my fan control issue? I had no problem in my old case but after moving to the new case the problem started.

 

[Abmario]

Ensure all those fans are connected to your motherboard fan header.

 

[huilun02]

To have control over fan speed, your fans need to be running off a 4 pin fan header for PWM speed control. The fan's power connector itself has to be a 4 pin connector.

 

[Abmario]

I had a quick look on your board manual, yes it has 3 x sys_fan & 1 cpu_fan headers, all are 4-pin. Your board has also PWM Phase Control feature in bios. If your fans doesn't not have PMW (4-pin connector) you'll not be able to control those fans, get Fan controller.

 

[Dlee13]

I had a quick look on your board manual, yes it has 3 x sys_fan & 1 cpu_fan headers, all are 4-pin. Your board has also PWM Phase Control feature in bios. If your fans doesn't not have PMW (4-pin connector) you'll not be able to control those fans, get Fan controller.

Thanks for that. I guess I'll have to spend the extra money and get the fan controller. It's strange since I had the same fans in my old case and they didn't run at full speed and were silent, yet on this case I'm having several issues.

 

[Abmario]

Welcome.

Fans can be controlled depends on the motherboard, example is Asus FanXpert:

the 3-pin fan is voltage controlled, 1 pin to ground anothers to the voltage, this reports back the RPM of the fan then the software regulates voltage going to the fan - control the speed.

 

[Dlee13]

Welcome.

Fans can be controlled depends on the motherboard, example is Asus FanXpert:

the 3-pin fan is voltage controlled, 1 pin to ground anothers to the voltage, this reports back the RPM of the fan then the software regulates voltage going to the fan - control the speed.

If I set my fan to be controlled by voltage in the bios will that work? Yes I've read Asus boards are great for fan control, makes me want to buy one.

 

[huilun02]

Yes give it a try.

 

[Abmario]

Your motherboard can only control the fans via PMW Phase Controller (bios), it doesn't have that feature of voltage regulation. Means your board can communicate only through signal to a fan that has feature to be controlled by that signal (pulse modulation width signal).

 

[Dlee13]

Your motherboard can only control the fans via PMW Phase Controller (bios), it doesn't have that feature of voltage regulation. Means your board can communicate only through signal to a fan that has feature to be controlled by that signal (pulse modulation width signal).

Would this fan controller be ok? https://www.ple.com.au/ViewItem.aspx?InventoryItemID=614721&CategoryID=676
Thanks for all the help, all these issues are driving me crazy. Now I just have to solve the motherboard beep issue.

 

[huilun02]

Yeah that will work.

It will control using wattage, with a minimum of 40% (12W) per fan.

 

[Abmario]

That's fine though it doesn't have USB port on it, it will do... Anyway, PMW fans are quite expensive compare to that.

 

[Dlee13]

I have a SD card reader with a USB port, as well as the 2 USB ports on my case so it's fine and doesn't bother me. Do you have any experience with this model? I don't want to buy and install it just to find the the fans don't even get that quiet.

 

[Abmario]

Fan noise most likely is caused by high rpm though there are quite fans out there, in case of your case (woah?!), in your case the fans are uncontrolled thus running at 100% rpm.. Reduce the speed with fan controller surely will lower down the dB of the fans.

Its good you got 200mm & 120mm, fans smaller than 120 mm spins faster & noisier.

I had a quick look into Sentry Mesh specs, I found the slider upper position will be at fan full speed then the lowest position only goes down to 40% of fan full speed, not 0v, (let say 12v=100%; 40%=4.8v). Some fans may not perform well lower than 5v or not run at all (could serve as switch off). Anyway, you don't wanna loose your fans cooling power for your system. This fan controller should be fine.

Hope everything works for you.

 

[Dlee13]

Fan noise most likely is caused by high rpm though there are quite fans out there, in case of your case (woah?!), in your case the fans are uncontrolled thus running at 100% rpm.. Reduce the speed with fan controller surely will lower down the dB of the fans.

Its good you got 200mm & 120mm, fans smaller than 120 mm spins faster & noisier.

I had a quick look into Sentry Mesh specs, I found the slider upper position will be at fan full speed then the lowest position only goes down to 40% of fan full speed, not 0v, (let say 12v=100%; 40%=4.8v). Some fans may not perform well lower than 5v or not run at all (could serve as switch off). Anyway, you don't wanna loose your fans cooling power for your system. This fan controller should be fine.

Hope everything works for you.

Thanks for the response!

Yeah I can tell my two front Cosair AF120's are running very high compared to my top 200mm. I remember reading the larger the fan the more quiet due to less less RPM but I had a 80mm Noctua fan on my old case which was surprisingly quiet.

I've spent the day reading about different fan controllers so trying to pick one out to buy tomorrow. I originally picked the Mesh due to it being the cheapest and matching my case, but I'm now trying to decide between the Sentry 2 or 3. I see most people use NZXT fan controllers but there's very mixed opinions on both models (I know the revised version of the Sentry 2 is better than the original).

Thanks for the explanation, I guess I could keep them at 50% when just browsing the web and doing normal tasks, then put all the fans up higher when gaming.